Do President Trump's tweets cross the line when he's announcing new policy on Twitter?

by Kristine Frazao, Sinclair Broadcast Group

President Donald Trump walks to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Thursday, Aug. 3, 2017, in Washington. Trump is en route to Huntington, W.Va. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

WASHINGTON —

Two hundred days in, and it’s clear President Donald Trump has significantly changed the office of the presidency.

One thing many people are still getting used to is his tweets, not from the @Potus account but from his personal twitter page.

While on vacation this week, the President took to Twitter to tout the strong support from his base and the size of his recent rallies.

While those tweets often shed light to his 35 million followers on what’s on the president’s mind, they recently crossed into new territory with the announcement of a change in policy in a series of Tweets.

“After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you.”

The announcement reportedly left many in the federal government scrambling.

“There’s no way the President had the conversations that he would normally have with his cabinet, with his staff to be able to go ahead and move forward with the kind of big policy change,” said Michael Cohen, with the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management.

The Department of Defense is still waiting to act until an actual policy is crafted, and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) criticized Trump in a statement for making major policy announcements on Twitter.

The social media site has become a medium used more and more, not just by the federal government but by law enforcement agencies who need to put out information fast, or enlist the public’s help.

As far as the President’s constant tweets, Cohen said in an interview last week there could be a bright side.

“There’s a measure of clarity that we’ve never seen. And authenticity. So there’s no hemming and hawing over well what’s the president really want?”

There may be clarity on what the president may want, but few details remain about what will actually happen.